The residents around the Mobil Oil refinery in Torrance have had their fair share of horror stories about living near the vast network of petroleum tanks and tall steel towers that dominate the city's landscape.

The memory of horrible accidents weighs heavily on the minds of residents such as Reuben Ordaz, whose family had to be evacuated for three days after a 1979 explosion that killed three people and triggered a fire that raged for two days.

But a consent decree to improve the refinery has come to an end, and many people whose backyards overlook the Mobil facility now have a different opinion of the 750-acre refinery where an eight-year project to improve safety is almost finished.

"I was born in 1928 on the street where I live and have lived here all my life," said Ordaz, who remembers the pungent smells that used to come from the refinery. "I have seen a 100% improvement."

The consent decree was established in 1990, three weeks before a lawsuit filed against Mobil by the city of Torrance was to go to court. The decree was a legally binding eight-year agreement overseen by retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harry V. Peetris, who appointed an independent safety advisor to make sure that the oil company complied with the safety recommendations spelled out in the pact.

As of Jan. 1, the Mobil facility became the first U.S. refinery to use, on a full-time basis, modified hydrofluoric acid, described by Mobil officials as a safer form of hydrofluoric acid. Mobil officials say using it will reduce by 90% the chance that a cloud of toxic hydrofluoric gas can move into surrounding neighborhoods and threaten residents.

"The bottom line is there have been a number of improvements. I would characterize the facility as a very safe refinery now," said Steve Maher, the court-appointed independent safety advisor.

But because the additive to the modified hydrofluoric acid is a trade secret, the only people to test the modified form's safety have been the companies that developed it together--Mobil and Phillips Petroleum.

Some environmental groups remain unconvinced.

"How can a community feel safe taking the word of the company that threatens them?" asked Carlos Porras, director of Communities for a Better Environment, based in Los Angeles.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has reviewed test results provided by the oil company, but is not required to approve or disapprove them, said AQMD spokeswoman Claudia Keith. The test results are on file with the Torrance Fire Department as part of the refinery's risk management program.